God Told Me To (1976)

Director: Larry Cohen

Starring: Tony Lo Bianco, Sandy Dennis

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Conceived In A HELL Beyond Our GALAXY Destined To Rule Our World!

Plot: A New York detective investigates a series of murders committed by random New Yorkers who claim that "God told them to."



My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Oh, yeah

#149 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 2 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

The film opens with a man threatening to jump from a sky scraper. He's also just murdered a few people for no apparent reason. When asked by Det. Nicholas (Lo Bianco) the man responds with, "god told me to" and jumps to his death. How awesome is that?

What follows is a pretty good crime story with some horror and, at the end of the picture, some sci-fi. The ending is nicely fucked up. It comes out of nowhere but somehow it makes sense. I'm sold on Cohen's work. Last October I watched IT'S ALIVE (1974) and loved it.

Look quick for a young Andy Kaufman in a police uniform (his first screen appearance).

Supposedly when Cohen asked composer Miklos Rozsa (who scored lots of classic noir pictures in the 40s) to score the picture, Rozsa replied, "God told me not to."

So how fucked up is the ending?

SPOILERS: THE WINGED SERPENT:

A guy from outer space shows up at Det. Nicholas' place, pulls up his shirt to reveal a vagina (that's right, a VAGINA) and asks Nicholas to make a super baby with him. Nicholas isn't having any of that so he attacks the space freak and the house which soon starts crumbling down upon them.

END OF SPOILERS...YARRRR!

Try wedging that into an episode of CSI and see how far you get!